What to do when given dice and no easy way out

Someone just informed me that next year China will host the Olympic Games. How is it that I wasn't aware of that until just now?

Truth is, I couldn't care less. I remember last year when the World Cup was going on, and it completely killed all the good parties. People in bars and clubs were watching TV instead of dancing and flirting like they should be. For soccer? Really? Now if it were baseball, I'd understand.

At one point during this World Cup madness, bored out of my skull, I actually got sucked into one of those dice-banging drinking games I detest. Thankfully, during all my years in China, I've been fortunate to avoid getting into situations where I had to play these games.

Recently, I took on a new project that requires me to conduct meetings at bars with Chinese clients. A friend reminded me that that means playing dice drinking games. I shivered and realized that I don't really know how to play. So, I found someone to show me the basics—any excuse for a mid-week drink!

First, I was dismayed to find that there are actually hundreds of varieties of dice games, not just one. Oh, what I've been missing! I begged to just learn "the most common one," so we played "Liar's Dice," which is also known as "Bllsht" or "chui niu." Here's how it goes, in simple terms:

Each person has a cup full of dice. Everyone slams the cup upside down on the table (as loudly as possible, and preferably off-beat with and during a quiet moment in the DJ's music). Then everyone looks at their own dice, or not, depending on what rules you've agreed to.

Each player guesses how many of a particular dice number is on the table, collectively. For example: "two sixes!" or "three fours," starting low and going higher, each player guessing higher than the last. Finally, when a player thinks the previous player has gone too high, they yell "bllsht!" Whoever is wrong–the yeller or the previous player–must drink.

So that's the basics. For some reason, people actually spend hours doing this. It's a great way to avoid conversation in case you've got a dull date, or can't speak the same language. Another friend tells me it's a fine way to get a good girl drunk–although I have no idea why he'd want to do that!